Classic Chess Pie

This is from Pie Academy by Ken Haedrich. It's a great book because he's got so many solid recipes and interesting flavor combinations. We bought it for ourselves after testing out a number of recipes.

However, you've got to keep an eye on him. For example, his basic streusel is surprisingly tasteless. His fruit pies are made with frozen fruit (which has worked out great) but you've got to keep an eye on the cooking times. For example, we have found that we need to let the fruit fully thaw to get good results, as opposed to Haedrich's "partially thaw" instructions. So if you go in ready to be flexible and adapt occasionally, it's good. 

I trust Haedrich enough that I made this pie for the first time for my book club. It has a lovely lemony flavor and several people had two pieces. Naturally they wanted the recipe. So here it is, paraphrased by me.

CLASSIC CHESS PIE
8-10 servings 

Pie crust dough for a single-crust pie (I used a half recipe of easy Perfect Piecrust) 

Filling

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup lemon juice
Grated zest of 1 lemon

Prepare pie dough. Roll into a 13-inch circle and line a 9- to 9-1/2-inch deep pie pan with it, fluting the edge. (My pie didn't need a deep dish pan. Next time I'm going to try my 9" regular pan.)

Partially prebake — Preheat oven to 375°. tear off a sheet of standard aluminum foil about 16 inches long. Prick the bottom of the shell with a fork in a lot of places. Press down on pie shell so it fits like a glove. (Haedrich then has you use beans to weight the foil. His technique is here. Having read somewhere long ago that you just need to be sure the foil is pressed really hard against the crust, that is what I did and it worked out fine.)

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer, gradually adding sugar about 1/4 cup at a time. Beat in the flour and salt; the mixture will be quite grainy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well on medium speed after each addition. Blend in the lemon juice and zest on low speed. (The filling may look curdled. That's ok.) Place the pie shell on a baking sheet, near the oven, and carefully pour the filling into the shell, smoothing the top with a spoon.

Bake the pie, on the sheet, on the center oven rack for about 46 minutes. The pie is done when the filling is just set and no longer soupy in the middle. Give it a little nudge to check.

Transfer the pie to a rack and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. Refrigerate leftovers, covered with tented aluminum foil.